“There is pace in the air in this town, there is a kind of rhythm which you can feel all the time…” say the teachers from the Rosh HaAyin conservatory who visited New Orleans
Between April 22-19 2012, a delegation of teachers from the Rosh Ha’ayin conservatory visited New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The delegation took place as part of the Jewish Agency’s Partnership2GETHER project which connects the Jewish community in New Orleans with residents of Rosh HaAyin.
Between April 22-19 2012, a delegation of teachers from the Rosh Ha’ayin conservatory visited New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The delegation took place as part of the Jewish Agency’s Partnership2GETHER project which connects the Jewish community in New Orleans with residents of Rosh HaAyin.
The delegation was led by the chairman of the Partnership’s music committee, Mr. Eran Katzir.
The delegation comprised 4 teachers from the conservatory, led by the conservatory director Mr. Meir Serrouya. The teacher’s trip took place as part of the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2Gether project.
The conservatory teachers’ trip was designed to establish ties between musical institutions in Rosh Ha’ayin and their counterparts in New Orleans, and to strengthen the bond with the Jewish community in the city.
The visit included meetings between our musicians and the staff of the jazz and classical singing departments of the prestigious NOCCA school, which is a combination of an arts conservatory and a high school whose graduates include some of the most important artists in the United States.
They also met the NOJI youth orchestra which was founded by Grammy Award winner Irvin Mayfield. Mayfield himself invited the teachers to his home and they talked about musical education and about future cooperation. It was like the realization of a dream when the teachers were invited to play a complete evening at Irvin Mayfield’s jazz club, a prestigious downtown venue.
Contacts were also made in the classical singing field, with the music departments of Loyola University and Tulane University. The conservatory teachers also performed for the Jewish community, as part of a major event to mark Israel’s Independence Day, and gave a performance which drew rapturous applause.
Later in the week Rosh Ha’ayin Mayor Moshe Sinai joined the visit in New Orleans, as part of an international mayors’ conference where he signed a partnership cities agreements with New Orleans Mayor Mr. Mitch Landrieu. He also received high praise for exceptional cooperation with the Jewish community in the city, and for the Partnership’s role in acting as a model for cooperation between cities around the world. The mayor also met with representatives of the local Jewish community.
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